It's Noirsville, a visually oriented blog celebrating the vast and varied sources of inspiration, all of the resulting output, and all of the creative reflections back, of a particular style/tool of film making used in certain film/plot sequences or for a films entirety that conveyed claustrophobia, alienation, obsession, and events spiraling out of control, that came to fruition in the roughly the period of the last two and a half decades of B&W film.

Friday, March 17, 2017

Girl Of The Night (1960) New York Call Girl Noir

Surprisingly good Psychological Woman's Neo Noir with an Oscar worthy performance by Anne Francis. Based on the book "The Call Girl: A Social and Analytic Study" by Dr. Harold Greenwald it was a doctoral dissertation on the psychology of prostitutes. Published in 1958.

Directed by Joseph Cates (Who Killed Teddy Bear (1965)), the screenplay was written by Ted Berkman (Murder on Diamond Row (1937), The Green Cockatoo (1937), Short Cut to Hell (1957)) and Raphael Blau (Edge of Fury (1958)). The films cinematography was by Joseph C. Brun (Walk East on Beacon! (1952), Edge of the City (1957), Odds Against Tomorrow (1959), Who Killed Teddy Bear (1965)), and the music was by Sol Kaplan (Trapped (1949), 711 Ocean Drive (1950), The House on Telegraph Hill (1951), Niagara (1953) and, The Burglar (1957)).

Girl Of The Night tells the story of Robin "Bobbie" Williams (Francis) a relatively "low mileage" call girl. When we first view her she is running terrified through the streets of Manhattan. A taxi cab picks her up and the driver takes her to her address. In the same building there is the office of Dr. Mitchell, who agrees to take a look at her, even though he is a psychologist. She tells Mitchell that she is a prostitute.

Dr. Mitchell is intrigued by all this and asks Bobbie if she'll agree to regular sessions on the couch... get your minds out of the gutter. Bobbie accepts the offer and we begin to hear and see her story in both audio and visual flashbacks.

Bobbie's sugar daddy "finesse pimp" is her "boyfriend" Larry (Kerr). He was supposed to watch out for weirdo S&M johns, but instead of accompanying Bobbie to the job decided to sit in cocktail bar and chat up a potential new "stable" gal named Lisa (Fulton).

Lisa (Fulton)

Rowena Claiborne (Medford) sort of the Madam of the call girl operation schedules the various tricks. Bobbie and new turnout Lisa are sent on a "date" with two business men of of whom is the out of town client of the other. When the out of town client leans a bit too heavily on new girl Lisa, he finds out that the girls are hookers. He begins to torment Lisa. She freaks out and accidentally backs away and over a balcony falling quite a few stories to her death.

Bobbie is stunned when Larry gets angry with her for letting Lisa screwing up "date." He roughs her up and she decides to leave the biz. She gets a job as a file clerk and with Dr. Mitchell's help begins to lead a normal life.

The film employs numerous sessions of questions and answers with Dr.Mitchell to reveal to the audience how a broken childhood, an absentee father, and being violated on a regular basis with a delivery boy who paid her off in candy, contributed to her present situation. Through all his help Bobbie begins to understand that her attraction to Larry is motivated by disgust and hatred. By giving Larry the money she makes, she sees him as lower than herself on the human trash heap.

It's all in all a pretty interesting film with quite a bit of insight into the sex worker business. The film is exceptional when you remember it was produced when the Motion Picture Code was still enforced. Anne Francis really gives an Oscar worthy performance. Lloyd Nolan plays the analyst to perfection. John Kerr as Bobbie's manipulating, suave, alcoholic pimp is equally good he reminds me of Steve Franken who played Chatsworth Osborne, Jr. in "The Many Loves Of Dobie Gillis" (1959–1963). Kay Medford who deals with life's unpredictabilities by staying heavily "on the sauce", she is equally convincing as the crumbling madam coasting on the down side of life.

Dark, uncomfortable, and at times noirish you can see why Girl of the Night disappeared from the cultural consciousness in the uptight 50s early 60s it was a bit ahead of it's time then, but the same film would need to be a bit more exploitive for today's audiences. It deserves way more recognition. Screencaps are from the Warner's Archive collection. A Café au lait Noir 7-8/10.